Literature / Chaos Seeds

"Do you embrace a life of adventure and danger, love and betrayal, power and wonder?"

Chaos Seeds is a LitRPG series by Aleron Kong.

In the middle of playing his favorite MMORPG, James is tricked into being transported into "The Land", the world of the game itself - or rather, the realm that the game was based on. Unbeknownst to him, he is one of the first "Chaos Seeds" in The Land: a human with chaos in his very soul, who may hold the power to destroy the world itself and unleash powerful forces that have been imprisoned for millenia.

Renaming himself Richter, he adapts to life in the new, harsh world. Everything he does has a consequence, for good or for ill, and he has the potential to become one of the most powerful beings in The Land. His exploits do not go unnoticed, however, and as he begins to forge his own kingdom, making both friends and enemies, he must decide what sort of person he wants to be, and make choices that may determine the very future of The Land.

The books in the series are:

1. The Land: Founding
2. The Land: Forging
3. The Land: Alliances
4. The Land: Catacombs
5. The Land: Swarm
6. The Land: Raiders
7. The Land: Predators
8. The Land: Monsters

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This series provides examples of:

• 20 Minutes into the Future: The series starts in the year 2037.
• Abandoned Area: A common feature of The Land. The Mist Village itself was this - a bunch of ruins - before Richter took it over.
• The Ace: Richter is good at just about everything he tries, though this is to be expected from his "Limitless" ability, which allows him to learn any skill (even ones that are normally racially bound) at 100% affinity.
• Action Girl: Plenty of women in the series can fight as well as anyone else. There are women stationed as guards in the Mist Village, all of the sprite women that Richter knows are dangerous warriors, and Sonirae is a professional assassin.
• Action Mom: Hisako, Sion's mother and the Hearth Mother of the Wood Sprites of Nadria, is an extremely capable fighter, especially when her people are in danger.
• Aerith and Bob: The series mixes normal names, like Jeremy and Isabella, with more unique ones like Sion and Quasea.
• Alternative Calendar: The Land's years and months are longer than Earth's, and the months have their own names (Sanren, Shibon, etc.) The years are numbered in "EBG" (Epoch of Banished Gods) and later "AOC" (Age of Chaos).
• And I Must Scream: Richter is put in this position by the assassin Sonirae; she uses a poison to paralyze him and dull his senses to the point that he cannot use magic or telepathy. This leaves her free to torture him while he is fully aware and unable to call for help.
• Armored Dragons: Alma the dragonling has armor custom-made for her in the seventh book.
• Author Catchphrase:
  • Many things are described as being "nothing to sneeze at".
  • Whenever Richter feels that he owes someone, it is mentioned that he should get them a fruit basket.
• Bag of Holding: Bags of Holding are uncommon and expensive items in The Land. They're extremely useful, as they make items weigh a fraction of their normal weight and can even sort currency.
• The Beastmaster: This is an ability that can be learned in The Land. Richter uses it to tame a 20-foot-long snake.
• Big "NO!": In the seventh book, Sion lets out one when Richter releases him so that Sion can be pulled back home through the portal, leaving himself behind to what appears to be certain (and final) death.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: In The Land: Predators, the devious Chaos Seed Heman has Richter at his mercy...and proceeds to go on a lengthy diatribe about how Richter got all the (undeserved) good breaks, how Heman had suffered as a goblin prisoner ^note It really was horrific, and how things would be different with him (Heman) in charge, etc., etc. This gives Richter and Alma a chance to use their new ability "The Messeji", which allows them to combine and become a Draconic Humanoid. Their new form allows them to easily defeat Heman and steal most of his possessions.
• Character Alignment: invoked This is part of how The Land functions. Originally characters just have a "positive" or "negative" alignment, but starting with the Age of Chaos, it becomes a more traditional alignment system: for example, Richter is Chaotic Neutral.
• Character Customization: A staple of the series: much focus is put upon Richter's choices to customize his own abilities and characteristics.
• Character Level: Every creature in The Land has a level, which signifies their strength and experience and their access to abilities. Non-combatants don't often obtain many levels in their lives, as combat is the fastest way to gain experience points.
• City of Adventure: Mist Village is gradually turning into one, especially after it gets its town specialization.
• Dark Is Not Evil:
  • Death mages are not inherently evil; even the life-master Sumiko, who abhors death magic, admits that death is a part of life, and that practitioners of that type of magic can be trusted allies.
  • Richter realizes that those with a negative alignment aren't necessarily bad people. Randolphus, for instance, is listed as invoked Chaotic Evil, but he's extremely loyal and just wants the best for the Mist Village.
• Dehumanization: Some places consider the kindir race to be vermin more than people.
• Draconic Humanoid:
  • The Messeji - the bonding ability between Richter and Alma - merges them into a single draconic humanoid, with a humanoid shape but a tail and the ability to breathe glass flames.
  • In book 8, Richter has the option to evolve into, among other things, a different species called the Draike, a dragon-human hybrid race now thought to be extinct. He declines the option, as it would be a form that his people would hate and fear.
• Dungeon-Based Economy: Mist Village has many wonders, most of which were hauled out of some cave or another.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Later books establish that people native to The Land do not use contractions, but this wasn't present in the first book; Sion in particular uses them regularly.
• Eyebrows Burned Off: Tabia manages to burn her eyebrows off when working on some explosive experiments - standing fifteen feet away from the detonation.
• Familiar: In the second book, Richter encounters a spell that allows him to summon a "soul familiar". This ends up being a dragonling that he names Alma (which, incidentally, is Spanish for "soul"). Originally she is of limited intelligence and is more or less a pet, but Richter eventually is able to give her upgrades that make her more powerful and as intelligent as (if not more intelligent than) any person.
• Fantastic Racism: The kingdom of Yves is racist against non-humans, to the point that each non-human must have paperwork binding them to a human chaperone.
• Fantasy Character Classes: These often take the form of "professions" in the land: for instance, Sonirae is a professed Rogue, specializing as an Assassin, and Richter becomes a professed Enchanter, specializing in Essence enchanting.
• Fantasy Kitchen Sink: Basically everything can be found in The Land: your typical varieties of dwarves/elves/etc, snow leopard monks who can run on the air, even Star Wars-like creatures.
• A Form You Are Comfortable With: In the seventh book, Richter is exposed to the Lords of Chaos, and they select an "archetype" - an old man so reassuring that Richter suspects that there's magic at work - to speak to him since his mind cannot safely handle the Lords themselves.
• Glass Weapon: Glass is a material that is far more durable than the stuff used in windows, and it can be used to make weapons.
• Humans Are Bastards: By the time of the seventh book, millions of humans have been brought from Earth to The Land, and Richter learns that hundreds of thousands of them have already killed each other in just the few months since, bringing the worst parts of themselves to The Land. They're even described as a plague - the worst, and possibly the last, Cataclysm to come to The Land.
• Hunter of His Own Kind: Richter learns in the seventh book that in a way, chaos seeds are designed to go after each other, with the feel of earning chaos points being comparable to drug addition. Some, like him, were gifted with abilities upon their arrival to The Land to make them especially suited to hunt other chaos seeds. He resolves to do so if he comes across any who mean harm.
• I Did What I Had to Do: This is how Richter feels about the person he's becoming, a person who doesn't shy from killing or torturing his enemies if he has to. He doesn't go out of his way to be cruel, but he also doesn't hold back if someone means harm to him or his people.
• I Know Your True Name: True names are a thing in The Land and can be used, for instance, to bind another's soul to do your bidding. For chaos seeds, their true name is the name they were born with.
• "It" Is Dehumanizing:
  • In the first book, when Richter refers to a goblin as "it", Hisako admonishes him for it, saying that even though the goblins were evil, robbing them of their identity can lead to evilness in turn.
  • The lich Singh refers to a wind demon as "that thing". The demon does not take this well.
• Killed Off for Real: While most people in The Land are dead for good when killed, Richter learns early on that he respawns after dying. Hisako says that this is not unheard of in The Land, but it's extremely rare, and that he should still be careful because they don't know if he's truly immortal and because dying and returning can have extremely negative effects. Richter later learns that Chaos Seeds actually have a finite number of lives in The Land - which, fitting for being Chaos Seeds, is random per person (seemingly no more than five).
• Leeroy Jenkins: Not having any other options, Richter frees a wind demon and tells it that the other guy's about to attack it, and then he and Sion do their best to get as far away from the ensuing battle as they can. Fittingly, he gets Sion to shout the famous cry with him, telling him that it's a battle cry from his homeland... only to reveal afterward that it's "more of a 'we're totally fucked and I hope this works' cry".
• Level-Locked Loot: This exists in The Land. Spells cannot be learned if you have not reached a high enough level in their required field of magic, and if you attempt to use a weapon that's beyond your skill level you may have trouble even picking it up.
• Ley Line: These are part of the way The Land functions. Places of Power are found at conjunctions of ley lines; for instance the Mist Village is on the ley lines of Air, Dark, Water, and Life. They also are part of, for instance, how portals work.
• Light Is Not Good: Similar to Dark Is Not Evil, just because someone has a good or positive alignment doesn't mean that they are kind or gentle; as Richter notes, the Wood Sprites of Nadria typically have a positive alignment, but they had a "kill on sight" policy for humans in their territory, regardless whether said human was innocent of any wrongdoing.
• Lost Technology: Richter can hardly go underground without finding some world-changing magic MacGuffin. He's the Thomas Edison of cavern looting.
• Magically-Binding Contract:
  • Saying something three times, or making a blood oath, turns the statement/promise into one. While they are possible to be broken, the consequence for doing so is extremely bad.
  • A line in the fine print in the game version of The Land had players agree to come to The Land. The few that had read it and known about it thought it was a joke (Richter included), but it was in fact a magical contract and part of what allowed them to actually be brought to The Land.
• Magitek: Magic can be used to make what otherwise would appear to be technology: auto-updating maps, video feeds, etc.
• Meaningful Name: James chose the new name Richter because, after discovering his Limitless ability, he wanted a name that suited the power he would one day have:
  If what Xuetrix said was true then his power could increase exponentially. If he really was in a new world, he planned on getting as strong as possible and making an impact. He would shake the ground and his accomplishments would only be measured by... James smiled and looked at Xuetrix. "My name is Richter."
• Murder by Inaction: Sion does this to Richter early on in the first book, letting a pack of wolves tear Richter apart. It comes back to bite him in the ass pretty quickly, and even long after the two of them become friends, Richter doesn't let him forget it.
• My Greatest Failure: Richter summoning a soul familiar temporarily lowered the Mist Village's defenses, leaving it open to attack, which resulted in the deaths of many villagers.
• Never Mess with Granny: Richter expresses doubt at bringing the elderly Sumiko into danger, but Sumiko insists that if the two of them go into danger and only one of them comes out of it, she'll be the one who survives. Richter later sees that she indeed is a strong fighter despite her age.
• Noodle Incident: There are many references to these in Richter's past.
• No Indoor Voice: The decaemur knight SPEAKS ONLY IN CAPITAL LETTERS!
• Polyglot: Richter's "Gift of Tongues" ability allows him to understand and converse in any language he hears or sees.
• One-Man Army: Richter is compared to one multiple times, and he becomes unusually powerful compared to most people in The Land; however, he has to accept that even he isn't able to do everything alone.
• Our Dwarves Are All the Same: Krom plays straight into all of the dwarven smith stereotypes.
• Pillar of Light: The Dungeon announces its birth to the world by briefly creating a pillar of light that is visible hundreds of miles away.
• Place of Power: These are found in The Land, and becoming Master of one can grant great power. The Mist Village is one, and Richter becomes its Master; the Hearth Tree is another, with Hisako as its Master.
• Punctuated! For! Emphasis!:
  • Xuetrix does this to Richter upon his arrival to The Land.
  Xuetrix: "I'm going to say it slowly this time. You... Are... NOT... In... A... Game."
  • This bit in the seventh book:
  The damage done was negligible, but the Disorient debuff made the lich stumble once more. So much so in fact that he broke the primary rule of magical shields and kids in church. Do... not... touch... it.
• Red Shirt: A literal example in the second book: a wood sprite is introduced with specific attention called to his red shirt, only to be killed moments later.
• RPG Mechanics 'Verse: The Land works like an RPG: people and creatures level up and have attributes and skills to improve, and everything has a direct impact: someone's charisma will make someone else react a certain way even if they normally wouldn't, a person who increases their strength will instantaneously become more muscular, a person will be unable to wield a sword if they aren't of the required level, and so on.
• Rule of Three: Saying something three times is a Magically-Binding Contract in The Land, and if the person fails to do what they promised, it will have severe consequences.
  Thrice heard and witnessed.
• Running Gag: "Gnomes rule!"
• Sapient Steed: In the third book, Hisako summons an Okami - a giant forest wolf - to serve as a speedy mount for Richter, explaining that she and the wolf's father have had many adventures together. The wolf, Fen, is intelligent enough to understand Richter and answer with body language.
• Set a Mook to Kill a Mook: Richter has a "charm" spell that allows him to command a creature for a limited period of time. He often uses it in battle when outnumbered, ordering his charmed creature to attack its allies.
• Shoulder-Sized Dragon: Alma the dragonling is the size of a cat.
• Shout-Out: Has its own page.
• Single Tear: When the emotional block over his past is lifted, Richter cries a single tear when remembering his family and "her", before he learns about the block and his newly released emotions overwhelm him.
• Sssssnaketalk: Richter's speech while in the Messeji form is always described as sibilant and hissing, and it's emphasized in the audiobook.
• Status Effects: Richter gets notifications when he causes them or is affected by them - bleeding, confusion, and so on.
• Stat Grinding: This exists in the land. Richter does it himself by using his abilities such as Analyze, Herblore, and Tracking whenever possible and by attacking a boulder nightly, and he helps his villagers do this by adding them to his party when fighting monsters so that they can share the experience points and level up.
• Supernatural Fear Inducer: Some things have the ability to cause a fear debuff in others. Richter's dungeon creates a "doubt" debuff, and another character points out that it's a particularly insidious type of fear; while for some it's enough to keep them out of the dungeon altogether, others will still be lured into the dungeon only to suddenly have it hit them and make them fatally hesitate in the middle of battle.
• Technology Uplift: Discussed; Richter thinks privately that he should invent things such as the La-Z-Boy in The Land.
• Title Drop: The word "predator" is used around 40 times in The Land: Predators, but there's a few instances where it's used in significant dialogue (for instance, when Richter declares to his village, "We are not prey! We are predators! And they will fear us!") or as a description (there are several times when Richter and Alma, or chaos seeds in general, are described as such).
• Toilet Humour: Book 8 takes it to an excessive level by spending an entire chapter just to describe Richter's diarrhea.
• Totally Radical: For taking place in the year 2037, there's certainly a lot of references to 2010s pop culture and slang.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Roswan and eggs.
• Unobtainium: This does not exist in The Land; Richter tries to convert some ore in a mine to it, only to receive a prompt telling him that it's a nonsense word.
• Your Mom:
  • Richter says "Fuck you and your mother" to Singh, and something along similar lines to the demon Xuetrix.
  • Richter says a "your mom" joke to Sion, and Sion half-jokingly threatens Richter if he says another. To the surprise of them both, the mother in question, Hisako, overheard the joke as well, and in response she casts a spell on Richter that he cannot identify. (It turns out to be harmless, but it's enough to scare him.)